


are you okay?

by plantmajor



Series: p is for pidge [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, MATTMATTMATTMATTMATT, PIDGEPIDGEPIDGEPIDGE, i love the holt kids, love 'em, my first attempt at angst, poor bb matt gets bullied, why do i put my hurt into these innocent beings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 08:41:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12077568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plantmajor/pseuds/plantmajor
Summary: katie holt is five when she first sees her brother cry.





	are you okay?

the first time she'd seen matt cry it's not pretty, and she almost ( _almost_ ) ends up crying too. he had been twelve, and she was five but still old enough to be able to know more about her mother's laptop than her father, the  _scientist._ her mom had set her in front of tv, watching some kind of educational tv show, when she hears keys jingling outside and turns her attention towards the door because that means  _matt's home, and matt's much more interesting than little einsteins and he probably can tell her about what he learned today and maybe he'll sneak her some candy off the top shelf._ instead, matt opens the door with his eyes red and bulging, his backpack half open and his glasses cracked and he's biting his lip and even a four year old knows that he's  _about to cry (even more)_. 

katie doesn't know what to think. she's never been a cryer and neither has matt. he's her older brother and she looks up to him, and before that she'd thought of him as strong and strong-willed. that day, she saw the facade beginning to crumble. their mother rushes over and drags him into her arms and he begins to sob and bawl into her shoulder, probably staining it with his snot but it's obvious that their mother doesn't care.  

"mattie?" she mutters after a few minutes, holding him tightly. "matt, sweetie, what happened?"

 matt doesn't answer; he's quieting up now, starting to slowly pull away and hug himself, silent tears streaming down his face. their mother strokes his cheek, wiping them away. "honey.." she whispers. "honey, what happened?"

'i'm-- i'm sorry." he hiccups, not meeting her eyes. "nothing, i'm sorry. i-- sorry."

"sweetie, no! you have nothing to be sorry for."

at this point, katie's moved from her spot on the couch and is now peeking into the hall. her eyes were wide, and she was confused and surprised and  _honestly really confused_ , but she doesn't say anything.

 'was it them again? that matthias kid and his friends??" colleen holt asks, now kneeling down to match her son's height. matt shifts uncomfortably, but says nothing. his too-big uniform moves, revealing an ugly scrape on his left shoulder. colleen eyes it, her mouth firm but her eyes shining with fury and tears. she rises slowly, hands balling into fists as she turns to the kitchen. "enough is enough. i'm calling the school."

matt's eyes widen, allowing more tears to slip past and roll down his cheek. "mom, no!" he shouts, leaving his bag by the stairs and following close behind her. "mom, no! it's fine! i'm taking care of myself!" 

"you said that last week too, and look at you now." their mom replies, picking up the home phone. "these are the third glasses in two and a half months. lenses are expensive."

"mom, please, you'll make things worse!" matt's shouting now, and he's starting to cry more and katie's never seen him in such a fragile state before. "he's just jealous. just let me switch schools mom, please."

"no." she says, her voice void of emotion. she's dialing now, and her finger hovers over the call button as she shifts her gaze onto her son. " you worked too hard for that scholarship, and if some trust-fund kid is pulling some draco malfoy crap just because you have the same  _nickname_ , then i'm calling him out on his bullshit."

this is also the first time she's heard her mother curse twice in one sentence. 

"just because you take his same classes, just because you're younger than everyone else, gives him no reason to pull stunts like this, nevertheless on school property. he's fifteen. you said he's smart. he should know better than that." 

"mom-"

"i've been bullied too. you can't keep getting beat up just because you skipped a few grades. go clean yourself up." she presses the dial button, and raises the phone to her ear, leaning against the island counter with a sigh. even from the doorway, katie can see her mother hastily wipe away a tear while matt turns, still crying himself. he wipes his face on his sleeve, walking away from the kitchen and into the hallway where he can see his little sister watching quietly.

"mattie?" she asks softly, but he's frozen in time. she doesn't know what's going on. she doesn't know who matthias is, why he's hurting her brother and why he even picked on him on the first place. all she knows is that matt's in pain and probably hurting-- just like that time katie fell off her mini scooter and scraped her knee on the concrete. she was crying really hard and matt runs up to her, his ninjago helmet still on his head and softly blows onto her cut, easing the stinging. "are you okay?" he had said, and that calmed katie down. she doesn't really know why; maybe it was the soft, soothing sound of his voice, or the way he smiled when he said it, all forgiving and sappy.

 it made her feel safe. and now, watching matt and her mother with her own two eyes makes her take on the role as older sibling and just feels the urge to want to make sure matt feels happier and stops crying because it's not fun to cry. she takes a step forward, and five year old katie holt knew that her brother needed a hug and five year old katie holt needed to let him know that she would never hurt him and would take care of him like he does for her.

matt's still standing there, stuck in his mind, staring at her, probably appalled at himself and his mother for letting him show this part of him to his little sister. not the cool part that was good at math and always thought of the best way to mess with their dad, but the one that was sad and bullied and alone. he opens his mouth to say something, but their mother's voice rings out from the kitchen (" _iverson, i swear to god, i **will** tell your wife what you tried to do me at the christmas party, this my  **son**!") _ and katie manages to reach him before he says anything, hugging him as tight as she could, her small, five year old voice asking, "are you okay?"

matt doesn't reply, but he hugs her back tightly and katie can almost  _hear_ him smile. she hopes he feels better.

 

**Author's Note:**

> this was a vent drabble, as will be the next 25 works in this series. pidge is my favorite person and the holt siblings will be the death of me and i will love them until the end of time. this basically means that i will express my hurt into them and try and evolve my ability to write their characters??? this is my first (published) contribution to the vld community and i'm still practicing with accurately writing their characters, so bear with me. thanks.


End file.
